We all know writing can be a lonely business. I spent years wondering – was I was really depressed or did I just need to speak to another human being every once in a while. A decade ago when I began teaching writing, my motivation was purely selfish. I needed a workshop to find out if other writers were going through the same torture and thought perhaps I could offer a thing or too about my writing process that might be helpful.
After leading workshops around Sydney, I began running weekends at a friend’s B&B in Braidwood and in 2004 I took a group to Bali in conjunction with the first Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, which I was also helping out with. I’d been a student of meditation for many years and so it was second nature for me to develop a meditative writing method which I still use, to take writers deep into sense memory. It began producing startling results. People couldn’t get enough of it and so I was back and forth to Bali every three months working with local writers, expats and Aussie travellers who weren’t about to let the threat of terrorism ruin their writing holiday.
